DISPATCH: Texas Tech to Build $23 Million Basketball Facility

A-J Media’s Don Williams reports that Texas Tech is at work on a proposed $23 million basketball practice facility, which will be across the street from the United Supermarkets Arena. The facility is going to include a men’s and women’s court as well as locker rooms:

The basketball practice facility’s planned location is right across Indiana Avenue from the main entrance to the United Supermarkets Arena, in an area that’s now the nearest parking lot.

Once construction starts, Hocutt estimated completion to take 12 to 15 months.

“It’ll have two basketball courts, a practice facility for the men, a practice facility for the women,” he said. “It’ll have all the basketball support and auxiliary spaces, so locker room, team facility, coaches offices. It’ll be first class and really position Texas Tech basketball for success in the years to come.”

This is great news for the basketball programs. I would expect that the facility will be fully funded before they begin work on it and this program is part of the Texas Tech Campaign for Fearless Champions. I know there’s the debate as to whether or not facilities are the key to improving the programs, and it appears that Texas Tech will continue to make the push to improve the facilities, but also to keep up with other programs:

“We’ve tried to take pieces that we’ve seen from a number of other places,” Hocutt said. “Elements that we’ve seen at Kansas State, Utah, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Kansas. West Virginia is one that we toured and saw some things that we like, so we try to take ideas from a number of places, but at the same time are still working through the design process.”